Alain Mabanckou

Alain Mabanckou (born February 24, 1966, in the Republic of the Congo) is a French-Congolese novelist, poet, journalist, and academic renowned for his works depicting contemporary African life and the diaspora in France, including notable novels Broken Glass, Memoirs of a Porcupine, African Psycho, Blue-White-Red, and Black Bazaar. He has received major awards such as the Prix Renaudot (2006) for Memoirs of a Porcupine, the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire (1999), and the Académie Française's Grand Prix de littérature Henri Gal (2012) for his body of work, and currently serves as Professor of Literature at UCLA. He remains active, with no death date recorded.